00:44 - ApothecaryI never saw the appeal of Pallbearer. Ok music, but not worth the enormous praise they've been getting by some. Didn't ever impress me much on album and when I saw them live with Deafheaven I wasn't really won over either

Additional infoRecorded and mixed by Yuri Smirnov and Andrey Chernyshov at Studio Kontakt during 2010-2011.
Mastered by Mats Lindsfors at Cutting Room.
Produced by Psilocybe Larvae and Yury Smirnov.
Cover artwork by A-Ra Design.
Leaflet design by W.Smerdulak.
Band photo by Max Malevich.

These days it sometimes seems that composition-wise the death metal scene has become pretty black and white. That is, you either have a band that sticks to the most generic formula of cookie-cutter death metal imaginable, a la a recycled version of Cannibal Corpse, or you have a band that goes for something blatantly left field to make a more original, creative impact, and rarely is a balance between these two separate camps to be found. One such band that have really made a great effort at the experimental structure are Russia's Psilocybe Larvae, who, as their name suggests, manage to craft with their unique brand of death metal a truly interesting result that "takes you places," to say the least, and their latest offering, 2012's Labyrinth Of Penumbra, is an excellent contribution to their aggressive, yet strangely psychedelic, sound.

Whoever invented the term "Dark Metal" must be some sort of marketing genius, because whenever this genre categorisation gets brought up, I get drawn to it like a moth to a flame no matter how many times I end up feeling let down. Psilocybe Larvae is also a self-proclaimed dark metal act, but I am already familiar with the band's previous effort and had a better idea of what to expect, which is a progressive form of melodic death metal.

Comments

It's dark, eerie, psychedelic, and at times epic without being too melodramatic; if I had to give it some point of reference, i'd say it sounds to me like a three-way combination between Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness", Mudvayne's "L.D. 50", and Edge of Sanity's "Crimson II"

Psilocybe Larvae is one of the few bands that make me proud of Russian metal scene. I wasn't disappointed after listening to this album too. It's not a huge leap but rather a steady step in the direction already taken with Non-Existence.

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"And we are not who we think we are
We are who we're afraid to be"
- Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"